Overstock.com's growth slows down in Q1

The CEO of Overstock.com says the majority of its sales are coming from mobile as the Internet retailer reported a $1.2 million decrease in profit for the first quarter.

Overstock reported $398.3 million in total revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, a 17% increase from $341.2 million in the same quarter of 2014. Of that revenue, approximately $36.1 million, or 9.1%, came from direct sales that it ships itself (versus about 9.5% in Q4 2014 and 11.2% in Q1 2014). The remaining 90.9% of sales are shipped by suppliers. Net income was $2.7 million versus $4 million in the prior year quarter.

“We are at 52% of our traffic [is] mobile. We continue to seek opportunities for growth by expanding our international sales and distribution footprint, through our crypto-initiatives, and through other means,” said CEO Patrick Byrne. “As a result of these initiatives, we expect to continue to incur additional technology and G&A expenses, and may make investments in other technology companies. These expenses or investments may be material, and, coupled with the seasonality of our business, may lead to reduced income as compared to prior periods or to losses in some periods.”

On Friday, the Salt Lake City-based online retailer filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission that indicates it may issue up to $500 million in stock or other securities using technology akin to the online software system that underpins bitcoin.

“We may decide to offer securities as digital securities…the ownership and transfer of which are recorded on a cryptographically-secured distributed ledger system using technology similar to (or the same as) the distributed ledger technology used for trading digital currencies,” the filing reads.